


the days after

by secretsarenotforfree



Category: Happy Death Day (2017)
Genre: F/M, but this is my epilogue so whatever, my fingers were just itching to write them, this is totally a bunch of nonsense, tree and carter were too cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-19 05:31:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12404208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretsarenotforfree/pseuds/secretsarenotforfree
Summary: Things look very different when you're trying to live your life right. Or, oneshots of Tree and Carter from before, after, and during the movie.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warning, since it is about Happy Death Day there are tons of spoilers, and mention several of the ways she was killed. I had to pull a lot of stuff out of nowhere because there isn't a ton of canon to choose from (and I only just saw the movie last night), so please cut me some slack!

Tree's made a lot of mistakes in her life.

Number one was probably when she was six, decided 'Theresa' was too many letters and took too long to say, and insisted on being called Tree. Her dad rolled his eyes and her mom laughed and asked if she was getting a head start on saving the environment, but her stubborn insistence made them eventually bend to her will. It wasn't until she reached twelfth grade that her steadily growing bitchier exterior stopped everyone from making jokes about her name - at least to her face. Spring semester of senior year was all a dark blur now, honestly. It's strange how losing your mom feels a lot like losing your will to live.

If you wanted to count the amount of epic fails, blunders, and moments of weakness that got Tree to where she was now, you'd be here all day. That's not the point. The point is, in all those mistakes, all those times where Tree was less than her best self and made decisions that she'd like to forget, there was one that she didn't. On Sunday the seventeenth, Tree Gelbman got blackout drunk, made out with her sorority sisters crush, and fell all over a guy she'd never met, drunkenly propositioning him to take her home.

Sure the day ( _days_ ) to follow were far from her favorite in, but in the end it was worth it. Finding someone that gives a shit about you in a world more interested in tearing you down than building you up is rare. And lucky, which is something Tree has never considered herself to be. (objective beauty can be a blessing and a curse. from the guy who grabs her ass in the checkout line, the douchey frat dudes with their flirtatious words and leering gazes, and the guy who wouldn't listen to the word  _stop_ at her first high school party, sometimes Tree thinks it's nicer to be invisible). 

Through every one of her deaths only two things stayed the same. One, her murder (obviously). Two was Carter, and his propensity to give a shit. An argument could be made for three and four being Danielle's insistently bitchy attitude and Lori's hidden derangement, but long term that wasn't that important. What was important was Carter.

On paper, he didn't seem to stand out too much (although all of these things she only found out later). Carter Davis, junior, 21. He took a gap year between high school and college to work and save money for his looming student loans. He has a single mom, a half brother, a dad he doesn't talk to anymore, and a little sister named Cleo. A music major with a specialization in sound mixing, the boy has a giant CD collection that he refuses to throw out and doesn't even believe in having an aux cord in his car. Still makes mixtapes on said CD's. Mountain Dew was his drink of choice, and Carter and his roommate Ryan had been friends for years before college. Tends to be a B student, and is generally well liked, even if he can be considered a geek. Polite and sweet, throws himself enthusiastically into everything he does, and pays attention to absolutely everything.

The only thing Tree knew that first morning, however, was she had an absolutely blinding headache, she wasn't wearing any pants, and she'd apparently slept with a guy who lived in one of the dorms (which was a huge no-no because according to Danielle if you were a Chi Pi Kappa you were only allowed do things with fraternity boys). Passingly, she realized he was cute, but her number one priority was getting out with no one the wiser, provided his dumbass roommate kept his trap shut. He'd looked away when she was changing, gave her Tylenol, folded her clothes, and asked if she remembered his name (she didn't). Tree didn't think she'd ever give him another thought after leaving Williams Dorm behind her.

Then she died.

And came back, groggy, and somehow alive, on his bed.

It took Tree three deaths to understand what was happening to her. Four to tell him the whole story and have him believe her, ten to figure out that they, in fact, hadn't slept together the night before, and fourteen for her to see how much he cared, for her. _Her_ , when all she'd done was be bitchy to him over and over again, tell him to his face she didn't want to be associated with him, and treat him like shit at the bottom of her shoe. Carter took a girl he'd barely had two conversations with to the hospital and stayed until she woke up, then came back to help her. He'd _died_ for her. _Died_. Tombs snapped his neck with a heartlessness that Tree didn't know people were capable of.

For the first time, she didn't care if she died again, didn't care about the internal damage she accrued every time she hit the dirt - she just knew she couldn't leave Carter like this. 

Tree never saw herself as a person who'd commit suicide, but she had no regrets about jumping from the top of that belltower.

She just couldn't leave him like that.

Every time Tree came back, she noticed something a bit new. He took everything in stride, believed her when she said she was living the same day over and over, tried to help her figure out who was after her, tried to protect her, accepted her for who she was and didn't expect more. Of course Carter wasn't the happiest in the beginning, when she was still being the bitchy person she'd allowed loss to turn her into, but no matter how she acted he was his own good self. Brought her her bracelet, lied about how they knew each other, tried to protect her.

She didn't deserve someone as good as Carter, and knew it, but he made her want to be better. Liked her, even when she was her worse. Love her, if what he says now is any indication. Tree still doesn't know how they got to this point, but what she said to Danielle on death day sixteen. If she lived, she was going to have to his babies. Hold on as long as she could, because she still doesn't know how she lucked into someone as good as him.

Yeah, Tree's made a ton of mistakes, but Carter made one too. Letting her in his life. Tucking the bitchy, blonde, drunk off her ass girl into his dorm room and crashing on his roommate's bed set in motion a turn of events that neither of them ever could've foreseen.

Too bad for Carter, though - there's no do overs for him. He can't go back in time and pass her over to someone else (although Carter assures Tree there's no way he could have, and she believes him).

He's stuck with her, and Tree plans on never letting go.

 


	2. Chapter 2

It takes a few weeks for the nightmares to appear.

 

Tree's settled into the Moral Theory 132 class she's taking to replace the credits from Dr. Butler's course, and treating each day as an opportunity to be better, do better. She keeps the shirt she spent so many days in at the back of her closet but burns the outfit Carter folded so many weeks ago. She never wants to see it again. Given Lori's demise, she has the whole room to herself, and has absolutely no qualms about sneaking Carter into it. Danielle can kindly go fuck herself with her no-frat-no-twat rule.

The two of them haven't had sex yet. Not much of a waiting situation, not really. (neither of them were virgins). They'd made out multiple times and got quite close, but held off for some reason. Perhaps it just wasn't right for them yet. That doesn't stop them from spending tons of time together, especially when they're asleep.

Carter's  _Sleeping With Sirens_ shirt is only a tad bit big for her, but Tree doesn't care. The appealing part of it is that it's his. Carter's arm is draped over her waist, his toothpaste sweet breath on the back of her neck. Even unconscious the two are wrapped around each other, legs tangled, a small breeze drifting over them from Bayfield's Louisiana campus. While Carter is deep in the sweet embrace of a blank sleep, the same can't be said for Tree.

Her mouth twists into a frown even in her slumber and Tree twitches, unnerved. Images race through her mind of the Bayfield mascot chasing after her, mouth wide open, childish laughter echoing through her brain and knife outstretched. That mask is the reason that attending any campus event is difficult for her - it's hard to forget how it haunted her for those sixteen days. The blonde's chest aches, a so far permanent side affect from her lost lives, and Tree fists her hand in the fabric over her heart. 

_He never saw me, he only saw you!_

_Guess he only wanted a stupid SLUT!_

Lori's demonic screeches echo through Tree's skull and the blonde gasps, trying to claw her way out of the nightmare her mind has her trapped in. Her leg kicks out and she moans, lowly, but loud enough that Carter groggily realizes something is wrong. "Tree?" he whispers, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake up. His girlfriend whimpers and shakes her head, still asleep, moans the word ' _no_ ' so quietly he almost didn't hear it.

"I'm so sorry." She whispers, and the pain in the word tugs at Carter's soul. Guilt is an emotion Tree's always tried to stay away from, but when she's unconscious her defenses are down. It piles onto the anxiety and fear she's already experiencing and nearly suffocates her, the terror of the emotion enough for her to gasp herself awake, shuddering. " _Fuck_ ," she forces out under her breath, her heart beating fast and terrified in her chest. Carter slips a hand under her shirt and touches her back gently, the whisper of his fingers so gentle it was almost a dream.

"What were you dreaming about?" he asks, voice subdued, and Tree opens her mouth to respond - but nothing comes out.

The blonde pulls her knees to her chest and drops her head to it, eyes squeezing shut. "Nothing. It's nothing." The voice that utters the words shakes, and Carter doesn't believe it for a second. He and Tree have been together long enough that he knows her coping tactics - ignore it, and it'll go away. If it doesn't, bitch at it until she's not so afraid of it any more. He wishes she knew that emotions didn't work like that. The longer you push them away the more destructive power you give them.

"Okay." Carter presses a kiss into Tree's shoulder and she leans into him. They both know if he pushes, he'll get even less of an answer out of her. "Okay. Want to come back to bed?"

Images of grinning babies still dance in her head, but they fade a little when Tree turns to look at Carter's face. His handsome features are steeped in concern, but he's still stoic. Reserved. Knows the boundaries she's set and staying behind them. She reaches out to touch his cheek, brushes a thumb over the moles that decorate his skin. Tree wishes he'd smile. Carter's dimples make everything better.

Tree bites her lip and nods, agreeing with him, and they both lay back down facing each other. He holds her, cradling her small body in his arms, and she burrow in as far as she can go. Her messy bun tickles his nose but he ignores it, and they stay like that for a long time. Carter's the only reason she gets any more sleep that night.

 

The second time it happens, it's a waking nightmare.

 

Danielle forces the sorority to attend the pep rally, and more than two thirds of the attendees carry some sort of Bayfield Baby memorabilia. Half of that number are wearing the masks themselves. She fists her hands so tightly in her lap that her knuckles turn white, and forces a smile onto her face that she doesn't feel in the slightest.

"Hey! Hey bitch!" Danielle snaps her fingers in front of Tree's face impatiently, perfect brunette locks in an intricate fishtail down her back. "Show some school spirit! You have a reputation to maintain -  _our_ reputation! Don't make me sorry I voted you into the house." She thrusts a mask into her hands. "Here. So no one can see the fakest smile ever. This is  _not_ to time to advertise that Kappa's are ice bitches."

Tree's thick grey sweater dress and thigh high boots are not enough protection for the molded plastic that Danielle so unceremoniously dumped on her knees. She drags her blue eyes down to the mask and feels her heart skip a beat at the lone tooth and cherubic cheeks. Fuck. It really shouldn't be this big of a deal anymore, right? She should be over it. She did it, she got her killer. Lori's been buried for weeks now. There's no reason she should fear the dumbass mascot that her university chose.

Here's the thing though.  _Lori_ might be dead and gone, but Tree's trauma isn't. She would've burned the 'hey, it's your birthday! and now you gotta pick up the phone!' mp3 file if she could, but had to settle for deleting it. Seeing the 'Save the Enviroment' girl still brings a slight shudder to Tree's shoulders. And being absolutely surrounded by people in the Baby mask has her searching for the glint of a knife all around her.

Carter, a few rows down (Danielle wouldn't let him sit anywhere closer), tries catching her eye again. He'd been doing it all game, trying to keep tabs on how she was feeling. It was still a shock that he believed her story, that she'd relived the eighteenth so many times before and died horribly each one, when Tree didn't think she'd believe it herself if she hadn't gone through it. Even she thought it was absolutely batshit, but he took it in stride, like he seemed to do with everything.

Tree's phone vibrates and she digs it out of her knitted pocket with hands just a few degrees too cold, even in the March weather.

 **Carter** : You doing okay?

 **Tree:** Of course I am. Fine vagina's always have their shit together.

No. No she was not. But she had to save face. Tree flashes him a smile and two thumbs up, and he rolls his eyes, looks down. Her phone vibrates again.

 **Carter:** Don't you think I can tell when you're lying?

She makes it through. Barely. And then makes plans to mysteriously get a stomachache the next time Danielle decides to advertise at a huge campus event.

 

The third time it happens, she cries.

Big, giant, dry sobs that Tree finds absolutely humiliating but can't seem to stop. "It's the mask." Tree muffles into Carter's shirt, his strong arms wrapped around her. "I just keep think about it coming after me. And it won't  _stop_." Carter shushes her, presses a kiss into her hair. Nuzzles her forehead and moves one big hand up to massage at her neck.

"You have to see someone about this, Tree." Carter's not pissed, per se, just worried. Fed up. Tree's methods aren't working and he's tired of her pretending everything is fine. "The nightmares aren't going to go away. You have to talk it out."

Tree fists a hand into the fabric of Carter's blue thermal and thumps at his chest, noises of frustration bubbling out of her chest. "Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit! I did it. I killed her. I just want to get on with my life now.  _Please._ I just want to  _move on_." She presses on his chest until she frees up some space between them, and gazes into his eyes. Deep, dark, her favorite shade of chocolate. The moonlight really brings out the worry in them.

"Don't you think I want that for you too?" Carter says, clearly almost as exasperated as her. "I want this over with for you. But it's not leaving. You're not dealing with it and it's controlling your emotions. Messing with your sleep, Tree, fuck. How many hours have you gotten this week?" She averts her gaze, telling him all he needs to know. "Yeah. Thought so. If you're not going to talk to me, talk to someone. You can't keep going like this."

The stress of it presses on her lungs and Tree feels like she can't breathe. So she does the next best thing, which is kissing. Kissing Carter, more specifically, and she cups his cheek and brings his lips down on hers to do just that. Tree swipes her tongue against his bottom lip and he opens somewhat reluctantly, clearly not done with the conversation. Tree is, however, and her actions show it. Her arms wrap around his neck and pull him closer and Carter moves with her, nipping at her lip. She tastes a little like her tears and it makes Carter wish he could kiss the pain away, like somehow the warmth and care of his lips could scare her PTSD away.

Tree moans in his mouth and pulls him down with her, fingers tugging at the bottom of his thermal. Carter breaks from her to pull it off and she revels in the newly bared skin, the constellations of moles on his slim figure and tapered waist, freckles dotting the broadness of his shoulders. He might not be a part of a frat, but he still cares about his body, something she was pleasantly surprised to find out the first time she got him shirtless. Muscles ripple and stretch over broad pecs, flat abs, and strong arms, and she salivates a bit in her mouth. The black ink of his tattoo stands out against the paleness of his right forearm and causes Tree to divest herself of her own shirt so they're on the same level. 

Carter mouths kisses on her chin and moves down the column of her neck, stopping for a moment to lay worship to both of her breasts, and glances up at his girlfriend. She's turned on, there and in the moment with him, but the sight of her tear tracks give his pause. He wraps his arms around Tree's waist and rests his chin gently between her breasts, looking up at her. "Not like this." he says simply, and Tree's face crumples a bit even as she bites her lip and nods. It wasn't the time, no matter how much she wanted it to be.

 

Four days later, following another nightmare that leaves her staring at the ceiling afraid to fall asleep again, she sneaks away to the counseling center with Becky's help. Tree doesn't mention that her nightmares come from days of real, traumatic experience, but does describe them in detail. They talk about her mom, how she's trying to mend her relationship with her dad, and how classes were going. It brings some lightness to her chest, even if she was mostly antagonistic to the psychiatrist.

She goes three more times in the next two weeks. The nightmares go away, slowly.

"How'd it go?"

Carter turns from his computer, a black and white checkered flannel on his top half, jeans on his bottom. Ryan doesn't even spare her a glance, too engaged in coordinating with his League of Legends buddies on his headset. Tree holds a piece of paper out to him and waggles her eyebrows, a devious smile on her face. The overalls she's wearing are tight, and Carter's told her many times they make her ass look good. 

"Clean bill of health." She says, happiness all in her voice and grin. "Haven't had nightmares in over a week."

Carter's beam showcases the dimples that Tree loves so much and makes warmth rush to all corners of her body. He stands up from his chair quickly and strides over to her, cupping her face in both hands and laying a kiss on her so fierce she can feel it down to her toes. "That's my girl," he murmurs into her mouth, and Tree laughs, sliding her hands under his shirt.

"Ryan, get out." They say simultaneously, and aforementioned roommate groans.

"Make it quick." Ryan mumbles, flicking some of his silver hair across his forehead, and collects his computer and headset before heading out the room. "No more than two hours, alright!" 

Unfortunately for him, he ends up having to sleep in his car.

 

 


End file.
